Moving away from co-sleeping

[Cindercat]

My DD is 6mo but was born at 35 weeks so her age from due date is just under 5mo. She goes to sleep in her Snuzpod attached to our bed and will go back in her Snuzpod after her 11pm feed. However, she has always spent a portion of the night in with me, for our own sleep preservation. This has now become a routine. She wakes consistently at 2:20am and will settle almost immediately if I bring her in and usually sleeps until 5:30am. However, my sleep is pretty poor as she takes up more and more room and is disturbed when I move. She is capable of going to sleep independently but I need to break this night co-sleep routine. Last night, I just didn't bring her in and she would drop to sleep for a few minutes but couldn't settle. I delayed her until 3am but then needed to bring her in to get some sleep for both of us. Do I just keep delaying until she isn't coming in and accept no sleep for a while? Has anyone done this successfully? I'm obviously thinking as well about the eventual transition to her own room and cot and would like this habit to be broken by then... Thanks for any advice!

I ended up co-sleeping with my DD for self preservation too. When she got bigger we moved her cot next to our bed and took the side closest to our bed off. Made sure there was no way the cot could slip away from the bed to create a gap she could fall down and she slept in there. Meant she was next to me but also in her cot. In terms of moving her to her own room, we did it at almost three years and got her a day bed with a pull out bed below. Both she and i moved into her bedroom and then after two months I moved back. She does still sometimes wake at 4am so I pull out the pull out bed and sleep there with her till 5.30am - it's just easier.

Not necessarily suggesting you sleep with for as long I did with mine (you might be luckier than us!) But definitely finding a way of making co-sleeping work rather than fighting it worked better for us.

She may need extra help to settle in the cot, so more help than you're currently giving her.

Does she have a dummy? Have you tried patting her constantly? What about physically cuddling into the cot?

Hi thanks both. She settles fine at bedtime but it is this clockwork waking at 2:20 and coming in the bed. She won't take a dummy - we have tried and tried and tried. Re patting, I have tried but my hands in her cot just seem to distract her and she wants to grab them and bring them to her face. Same with cuddling in the Snuzpod - she just starts to play with my face. A step by step transitional approach to getting her to resettle in her own bed would be great. @Mattieandmummy - this sounds great but quite a long haul approach... I don't think DH will be up for dismantling the cot and bringing it through to our room, plus it just wouldn't fit next to the bed because of the way we have things set out... My DS15 moved to his own room and cot at six months & I just don't remember it being a major problem but I think DD is going to be a bit different. I'm not planning to move her out until at least January and probably later (though it will depend when she outgrows her Snuzpod) but want to start the move away from co-sleeping now so that she is more ready for the transition when it comes and so that my quality of sleep can improve in the meantime. I do really love how slowly and gently you made the transition for your DD though.

At the time it was definitely more of a case how on earth do we survive this level of terrible sleeping more than anything else. DH needed to go to work and function so it was a case of needs must.